By Christen Smith

Commission chair and Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri gestures as he speaks during the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission Meeting, Thursday, June 7, 2018, in Sunrise, Fla. (Photo: Wilfredo Lee/AP Photo)
Officials reviewing the Parkland massacre described the alleged suspect’s late mother as an “enabler” who thwarted attempts to help her troubled son, according to a report by the Associated Press this week.
Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, chairman of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission, said Lynda Cruz “frequently interfered” with interventions from mental health counselors and school administrators trying to treat Nikolas Cruz, the 19-year-old accused of gunning down 17 people at his former high school in Parkland, Florida earlier this year.
Gualtieri said Lynda Cruz told counselors she didn’t care if her son owned guns, including the AR-15 rifle used in the Valentine’s Day attack. Officials made more than 140 contacts with the Cruz family over the years, though it remains unclear exactly how the mother — who died in November after a bout of pneumonia — derailed her son’s treatment.
Earlier reports indicate district officials transferred Cruz out of a school for behaviorally troubled students and into Stoneman Douglas in January 2016, despite concerns over